Text below this line is the blog entry which the above Word doc, repeats.

This entry is a long time in coming. It's about how God uses Bible Hebrew Meter as a rhetorical style. I've been documenting that style for almost three years, now, in Youtube and in some webpages (links follow passim, below). The documentation has been spontaneous, a kind of journaling, as I learned more and more about this rhetorical style of using numbers as mnemonics, for the orally-memorizing-Torah Jews of the OT. I'm still finding out the rules, too. So the documentation, is far from finished.

This blog entry thus aims to introduce what I've learned about Bible Hebrew Meter, in case you also wish to pursue the topic. I submit you don't need 'brainout' to find the same information; but it might speed your independent research time, if you first become acquainted with what I was caused to learn. You decide.

The concept: the Jews were operating on a TIMED PROMISE of Messiah's Arrival. That was eschatology for them, and to communicate it, God employs many verses as promises and threats, about that future. Not only are the verses explicitly about that future, but many of them are METERED to show HOW MUCH TIME would be spent toward that ultimate goal.

Psalm 90 is thus metered to show this, starting with eternity past Promise of THE (only one) Day of A Thousand Years, a Promise to Messiah, and hence to the Jews. Messiah, being a son of David, promised to David, in 2Sam7. David got that promise because Israel rejected God as King, preferring a human king, the first of which was Saul. He would have inherited the promise of sons (1Sam 16:1, in context of the prior chapter). So initially, Saul was grafted in, and Israel through him. But he rejected God, so David was grafted in, and now Israel, through David.

Moses foresaw all that, metering Psalm 90 accordingly. Psalm 90 is metered on two tracks: one, quasi-historical and prophetical, starting with the Promise just mentioned, verses 1-4. Verses 5-8, cover the Adamic period, first 1050 years. Verses 9-11 cover the Noahic period, the second 1050 years, at the end of which comes Abraham. So the third 1050 is to build Israel, and can be called the Mosaic period, since Israel was grafted in through Moses (i.e., Numbers 14, and the Levite inheritance grafting of Kohath); so Moses records his own vote, verses 12-15. Prophetic, are verses 16-17.

Thus we see the metering pattern and the Construct of Time: 490 + 70 + 490 =1050 =1000 + 50.

Verses 1-4, 84 syllables = 1050 +14 years in reserve.

Verses 5-8, 70 syllables = 1050 years, Adamic.

Verses 9-11, 70 syllables = 1050 years, Noahic.

Verses 12-15, 70 syllables = 1050 years, Mosaic.

Verses 16-17, only 56 syllables, as Israel will be in breach then (467-397BC); and the 14-year shortfall is a warning about voting.

Thus you read verse content in light of the historical-prophetical period referenced by the meter.

So let's notice the style:

A. This is an ACCOUNTING meter of one syllable equals one year.

B. The syllables convey a BLESSING PROMISE, so are patterned to be divisible by SEVEN in aggregate. So Moses is accounting sabbatically, not in 50's. (Judaism mistakes Psalm 90's 350 syllables as divisible by 50's.)

C. So the syllables are used as a CHRONOLOGY, which you measure to proof the CONTENT of what you remember. The content and the meter meaning, tie.

D. The first such divisible-by-seven 'paragraph', is a DATELINE. Sometimes the second 'paragraph' is used that way, too.

Many other Bible passages 'follow' the meter Moses uses. To demonstrate this pattern as a rhetorical style, then, I'm currently compiling a charted comparison of four such passages: Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9:4-26, and (surprisingly) Ephesians 1:3-14. Link to that ongoing comparison (still in draft as of this writing), is here: http://www.brainout.net/Ps90Isa53Dan9Eph1.doc . So Psalm 90's meter can be proven as a definite rhetorical style in Bible. Once you see the pattern (i.e., A-D above), you should be able to choose any prophetic OT passage in Hebrew and see it occur.

The second time track in Psalm 90, is consecutive, 350 syllables=years from the time Moses writes, in 1400BC -- the 'gap' time between entry into the Land, and the appointment of human kings (beginning with Saul). The book of Judges thus is designed to show how Psalm 90's consecutive track, was fulfilled. Here, the writer of Judges 'tags' certain syllable counts in Psalm 90 to indicate what historical events 'belong' to the content there:

Totals

351

Description

Cum.

Psalm 90 tally

50

post-Moses, Joshua and that generation

Judges 3:8

8

oppression under Cushan-rishathaim and Othniel

3:9

8

Othniel

3:11

40

means 40 years en toto passed after Joshua & that generation

90

3:14

18

oppression under Eglon of Moab and Ehud

3:30

80

Verse means 80 more years passed, en toto

170

4:3

20

Deborah and oppression by Jabin king of Canaan

5:31

40

Verse means 40 more years passed, en toto

210

tallies to Ps90:10 at end

6:01

7

oppression by Midian

8:28

40

Gideon, +peace, +Abimelech=40 more years pass en toto

250

9:22

3

Abimelech

10:02

23

Tola

273

10:03

22

Jair

295

might tally to Ps90:15, rounding

10:08

18

Oppression under the Ammonites

313

12:07

6

Jepthah: included in the 18, years 295-301

12:09

7

Ibzan: included in the 18

12:11

10

Elon (maybe overlaps with Samuel)

323

12:14

8

Abdon (overlaps with Samuel)

331

13:01, 15:20, 16:31

20

Samson (overlaps with Samuel)

351

End of Psalm 90

So on Time Track 2, Moses 'stops' at the point where God will be rejected, and human kings, introduced. On Time Track 1, Moses 'stops' at the THIRD 1050, for it might not complete.

oIsaiah 53's Accounting Meter picks up where Moses left off, as Isaiah's metrical theme is First David to Last David. So Isaiah shows how the FOURTH 1050 will complete, as a PROMISE. Like Moses, Isaiah follows the convention of one syllable per year, and deliberately leaves out certain famous year-counts, in ellipsis. The day I learned this, I made a 44-minute video about it, which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOXuVeUthq4 . (Since 2008, I've learned more about how Isaiah crafted his meter, but the initial finding in that video, is still true.)

oDaniel 9 picks up in the same place as Isaiah 53, but at a different point in David's life, yet also ties back to Psalm 90. Daniel then tracks the kings both explicitly in his text, and metrically (one syllable per year) in their HISTORY, to prove what time God had Isaiah meter, actually came to pass.

That's the basis for Daniel's petition, which invokes God's promise in the (then yet-to-occur) TEXT of Isaiah 53. From there, Daniel crafts his meter showing the justification for completing that Promise. Then God responds, also in meter, in Daniel 9:25-26, which explictly list some of the factors Daniel used -- to 'tag' where God 'answers' Daniel. Just as, Daniel had tagged Isaiah, who tagged Moses' Psalm 90.

In English, this is our first 'hint' of the meter, but we don't recognize it as anything but an out-from-nowhere Promise of Time. And then, we argue over what that promise means. We would know what it means, if we noticed the meter.

oThen Paul in Eph1:3-14, picks up where GOD stopped, in Daniel 9:26c -- the 62nd 'seven', showing how we are still IN that Time Bubble, Paul metering his Greek words to a Hebrew meter, totalling 434 syllables=62 weeks. Paul's divisible-by-seven submeters also tie back to particular points in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 90, just as Daniel had done.

So as you can see, this is a deliberate rhetorical style, since Bible writers 'talk back' to other passages using METER. So there's a lot more to study and document. That's what I'm doing now, and it will take at least several more years, just to show the STYLE of these passages.

I've also just learned via the Camping fiasco, that Psalm 90's metrical paragraphs tie to the days' benchmarks in Genesis 7-8; and also, are based on the meter in Genesis 49, Jacob's tribal prophecy of Israel's future. So I must check those prior passages, to see if maybe I've misaccounted something, heh. Always Account Back To Source. I didn't know the source of Psalm 90's meter was in a prior Bible passage (though I suspected it related to Genesis 7-8, since Moses datelines Psalm 90 as the beginning of year 1051 from the Flood). So now I've got to re-examine everything. Heh: never stand pat on your interpretations. :)

Again, http://www.brainout.net/Ps90Isa53Dan9Eph1.doc will be the central document where I do this re-examination. Pay close attention to the first three pages and especially to the 'E' footnote, which goes through Daniel's metering ties to HISTORY, Isaiah 53 and Psalm 90, in excruciating detail.

Will be making more videos to show it and Paul's usage, too. It will be a long time before I finish (smile here).

Thus far in Youtube, I've done four (yet-unfinished) video playlists to illustrate this rhetorical metering style, and explain it. http://www.brainout.net/Mirroring.htm is the central webpage on the TIME value of the meter; it has all the relevant video playlists at page-end. You can click on the 'Youtube' watermark in any of those playlists, to read the video description in Youtube. Those video descriptions have many important links for related documents, parsed Bible passages etc.

God's Metering style is extremely deft, so it takes time to show, heh. I apologize in advance for the lengthy videos. If you can think of a better way to explain the material, I would urge you to do it yourself. This rhetorical style is very important. It will revolutionize the way we test, understand, validate both Scripture itself (i.e., meter testing validates the original words) -- and, the way we validate Scripture interpretation.

UPSHOT: Everyone's hermeneutics prove partly right AND wrong, once you see this rhetorical style. All Replacement Theology, theonomy, preterism is proven wrong. Yet Dispensationalism is at least partly proven wrong too, for God doesn't use use lunar years; hence Jews and Christian Dispies misaccount Daniel 9. So the Jews are partly vindicated and partly upbraided too. We're all in this, together. :)

Whoa. What a lot of jobs can be created if we just re-learn what's been in the Bible, all this time. So we all need to go back to the drawing board, and revisit our ideas of what God says; we must pool our resources, and stop fighting our little, petty denominational turf wars. End Commercial Message. :)

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